Pope Leo to preside at 21st-century martyrs' commemoration

Pope Leo XIV will preside at the Commemoration of Martyrs and Witnesses of the Faith in the 21st century, which will take place on 14 September in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome.

According to the Vatican calendar, the commemoration will specifically honour those who have died for their Christian faith in the 21st century. It will include not only Catholics but also members of other Christian traditions who, in various parts of the world, have suffered persecution, violence or death because of their witness to Christ.

The Sunday event, at 5 p.m. local time, is being organised by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The liturgy will be attended by representatives of other Churches and Christian communions, underscoring its ecumenical character. The event forms part of the wider Jubilee programme of 2025, which has seen a series of major celebrations and moments of prayer in the Eternal City.

The choice of venue is particularly significant. The Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls, one of the four major papal basilicas of Rome, is built over the tomb of St Paul the Apostle, traditionally regarded as the great missionary and martyr of the early Church. The setting underlines the continuity between the witness of the first centuries and that of Christians today.

The commemoration comes only months after Pope Leo XIV authorised the recognition of the 167 victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka as “witnesses of the Faith”, a category the Holy See has increasingly invoked in recent years. That announcement highlighted the Vatican’s determination to ensure that the memory of modern Christian victims is preserved in the Church’s prayer and teaching.

The Holy See Press Office has announced that further details of the commemoration will be presented in a press conference the week before the liturgy. At that briefing, officials from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints are expected to outline how the names and testimonies of victims have been collected and will be remembered during the ceremony.

The Jubilee calendar already includes several significant events centred on prayer for peace and the unity of Christians. This commemoration is therefore expected to be both a liturgical moment of mourning and an act of shared witness among the Churches involved.

In recent years, the Vatican has consistently drawn attention to the plight of Christians facing persecution around the world, in places such as the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia.

In 2000, a similar ecumenical commemoration of 20th-century martyrs took place at the Colosseum in Rome during the Great Jubilee of John Paul II, a precedent which this September's celebration will echo.

The 14 September liturgy will be open to the faithful in Rome and to pilgrims, and it will be broadcast by Vatican Media to audiences worldwide.

Photo: Pope Leo XIV listens to the singer Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo following the inauguration of the 'Borgo Laudato Si' Advanced Training Center at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, 5 September 2025. (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images.)

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